I’ve read these two Bible passages more times than I can count – one about God appearing to Moses in the Burning Bush, and the other concerning Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego surviving the fiery furnace. Yet it was only recently I noticed an interesting connection between these two events. See if you can spot it:

There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.” (Exodus 3:2-4.)

and,

King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?”

He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.” Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!”

So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire,and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them. (Daniel 3:24-27.)

The Fiery Connection

Not one twig was burned by the fire of God.

Not one hair was singed in that fire with God.

And our faith will not be destroyed, because fire cannot consume faith no matter how hot it seems to get in our lives. (1 Peter 1:6-7.)

This is what it means to belong to Jesus. We do not need to fear the fire because we are for eternity in the fire of God and with God.

I also noticed in these two passages that one has to approach the fire — you have to get close to the danger zone. It’s a big risk! Who would walk close to or into a fire? You do that knowing that God will not let it consume you.

I think I was reading someone who pointed out that the fire did not consume the bush, which I think everyone who ever wrote on Exodus points out, and the writer said it was because God was in the bush. Then I thought “Hey, those guys in the furnace didn’t get consumed either, and God was in there with them too!”

(I can’t remember the process exactly because I wrote this piece about three weeks ago and my memory fails me after more than 30 seconds or so.)